1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to racks and containers for storing strands of Christmas lights from year to year. More particularly, the present invention relates to racks for holding strands of lights and containers for storing the racks.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Before the current invention, prior Christmas light storage devices have left the user with a tangled, time consuming mess when it was time to retrieve and reinstall strands of lights. Some of the better devices provided frames onto which one or more strands of light could be wrapped. This caused several problems when it was time to remove the lights from the frame, such as tangled or hung strands, twisted wires, and broken bulbs.
With the prior art devices a strand of lights often became entangled when on the rack since the bulb from one wrap around the frame would catch on the frame or the bulbs and/or wire from a prior wrap around the frame. When removing the strand from the rack, it required the user to hold the frame in one hand while untangling and placing the removed part of the strand with the other. Since the user was required to stay with the frame it was necessary to carefully place the unwrapped portion of the strand so that it would not become tangled after removal.
In addition, the lights were wrapped around the prior storage frames causing the strands of lights to twist as they were put onto, or removed from, the frame. This often caused the strand to kink up due to the many twists that accumulate while wrapping or unwrapping the string. Another problem related to this twisting was that strands of two or more twisted wires would become untwisted. This made the strand look bad and often made the strand hard to neatly install on a house or the like. Yet another problem related to the twisting was that when one tried to remove kinks or re-twist the strand, the bulbs were often banged against the ground or floor while the untwisting was done. This would loosen or break bulbs, causing the strand not to light. These prior devices also required the user to unwrap the string of lights while at the same time trying to lay out the string so it would not become tangled after removal from the frame.
Some prior devices provided a means for rotatingly attaching the frame so the string of lights could be pulled from one end, which was intended to allow the user to pull the lights from the rotating frames. However, these devices included many of the problems listed above as well as additional disadvantages. For example, since the string of lights was wound around the frame, the bulbs from one wrap often become hooked with another wrap or the frame itself. This required the user stay with the frame and release the hooked bulb.
Even if the user took great care when wrapping a strand onto a rotatable frame, the strand was likely to tangle when pulling the strand to unroll it. One common way for a tangle to occur was similar to a backlash on a fishing reel; that is, when pulling the line the rotating frame builds momentum, and when the user quits pulling the frame continues to rotate. When this happened, the strand would either pile up on the ground where it could tangle or wind backward on the frame causing a tangle.